As
the heaviest fighting in Iraq comes to a close, questions about what
kind of government will be established dominate the news. Looting and
lawlessness are the order of the day in the inevitable vacuum created
by the removal of Saddam Hussein. Not surprisingly, the United Nations
 at the urging of France, Germany, and Russia  wants to
fill that vacuum and play the central role in postwar Iraq. If the Iraqi
people ever hope to enjoy any measure of self-determination, UN occupation
must be resisted.

Is the
UN demand to oversee postwar Iraq remotely justified? An increasing
number of Americans say No. In fact, more and more Americans
are rejecting the very legitimacy of the UN, openly calling for the
US to withdraw from the organization. Even mainstream Washington pundits
on the right have begun to question the wisdom of continued US participation
in the UN.

I happen
to agree with these new critics of the UN, having advocated getting
out of the organization for twenty years. Obviously many Americans now
want out of the UN because they resent its refusal to sanction our war
in Iraq, and certainly America should never let its national security
become a matter of UN consensus. But this growing anti-UN sentiment
provides an opportunity to make a larger point, namely that participation
in the UN is fundamentally incompatible with American sovereignty and
the Constitution.

Our current
approach of alternately using and ignoring the UN results in the worst
of all worlds. When we play along and cite UN resolutions as justification
for our actions, we give credibility to the concepts of international
law and global government. We give up precious sovereignty not only
to the UN, but also through trade agreements and organizations like
the WTO and NAFTA. Yet while we cede more and more of our national identity
to the globalists, we gain little in exchange. Other nations see us
as willing to ignore the global rules when it suits our purposes, and
we remain hated and mistrusted by much of the envious world. America
would be far better off simply rejecting global government as a concept,
and openly embracing true sovereignty.

Americans
should seize the chance to expose the myth of so-called international
law. Neither the UN nor any other international body has authority
to make laws that bind the American people. Simply stated, just laws
are derived from the consent of the governed, and Americans have not
consented to be governed by foreign individuals or bodies. Constitutionally
speaking, only Congress can craft our federal laws. While constitutionally-ratified
treaties can be legitimate, no treaty can usurp the basic function of
Congress by transferring legislative authority to an international body.
When the UN attempts to dictate our domestic labor, environmental, trade,
tax, and gun laws  as it already has  we need to remember that only
the representative US Congress has authority to make our national laws

I recently
reintroduced the American Sovereignty Restoration Act, H.R. 1146, in
the House of Representatives. This bill will end US participation in
the UN, stop the terrible waste of $300 million tax dollars in annual
UN dues, and ensure that American soldiers never serve under a UN command.
I have asked the House leadership for its help in bringing the bill
to a quick vote, so Americans can see where their representatives stand
on the issue.

Although I strongly believe our foreign policy should be based on the
philosophy of our Founding Fathers  open relations with all nations
that seek the same, and entangling alliances with none  I certainly
don't believe the UN should be involved in our policy decisions
at all. Our foreign policy and our domestic laws can be crafted only
by the American people and their elected representatives.